Author
Topic: Internet Dating, A.K.A. How to Scar Yourself Forever

Maybe not so much "net dating" as "hybrid dating". Met my wife about 5 years ago online. Were only friends for the first three years then started having romantic interests. Met about 2 months later but due to time, distance, circumstance, all that fun stuff we really only got to see each other IRL for about once every two weeks. The rest was online "dating" for about 7ish months before we pretty much moved in together and got married that summer a year ago. Anniversary was this month actually.

Personally, and to be blunt, the good thing about net dating is the depth and width of the choosing pool. Sure this means more chances of hitting a crazy but really unlike purely local dating you can pretty much "throw back" anything that doesn't mesh and try again without having to worry about running out of options. I mean you almost literally have the entire planet to pick from.

IF you don't like the bar scene then it is an option too. Its not like there aren't crazies everywhere else, eh? You just gotta filter them out. I ended up meeting my future husband on a dating site :)

I've met all but one of my girlfriends online, most of them through Plentyoffish, one through WoW and a couple through message boards I used to post in. It's definitely a mixed bag, I've had a couple good relationships that just sort of stopped, one that practically ripped my heart out and some that ended because there was going to be a body if I had to be around them for a minute longer. My currently girlfriend is great, we've been together for a year and have a kid and of all the girls I've accidentally got pregnant I'm happy this is the one that decided to keep it :P

Dating online is different than meeting people in real life, you eventually learn the things to ask and the way to talk that gets you some real answers out of these random people. Really I find the best way to go about it is to go back a forth a few times to test the chemistry and just try to set up a meeting or a phone call or something because then you get everything out of the way, you don't start forming a picture of this person in your head and can get to know the person that's there. Also woman are crazy, add the internet and they're fucking nuts, so expect most of the women you meet to really just have their heads on backwards and you'll do fine.

doing internet dating myself recently and MAN is it emotionally draining. I send 50+ mails, I get 1-2 replies, one of those is the usual "OMG cut and paste HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!" (my messages aren't even cut and paste, and man the way they react, is cut and paste == rape?), and the other turns out good but at some point usually after a few emails, quit replying. On a rare few occasions I get to the next level 90% they posted a pic of someone else, or are just a plainly unpleasant person(one I walked out on when she found out I'm into hiphop calling black people monkeys). So here's what I think is wrong.

Women: In normal society women have one or 2 guys approach them at a time, in online they're getting 20+ messages. This inflates their egos and makes them think they're more than their net worth(I hate saying that this way but I can't find another word), they begin to build this list of a perfect guy which they hold out for which is WAY unrealistic(I noted alot of girls have been on these things for years never even dating a guy).

Men: They realize this "game" and begin to play it, this isn't the standard "man women" game its a sleeze game. So many girls I've talked to ended up dating a married guy with kids, or met someone who wasn't even their pics. These guys know the right words/pics/etc. since for them they don't want to meet someone, they want to seduce someone.

In the end both sides get pissed off at one another, and no one moves forward. But who wins? The dating sites! They don't want you to find someone, they want your money!

Logged

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."~Malcolm X

I met my boyfriend of 2 1/2 years on a dating site. That was after a year of getting disappointed, but in the end it was worth it. I had to try a few sites (all free) but I eventually found one that worked out, despite it having a rather nasty reputation. If I had to, I would also use a dating site again, since I think the successes greatly outweigh the disappointments.

Have you players noticed the conflict that this game's masterful creators put at its core? Do you want to be with a normal person and live a safe, stable life or do you want to be with a crazy person and have an exciting life?

Online dating is all the rage in New York City. A lot of people (myself included) work very long hours and at some point going out to bars/clubs gets really boring. There's tons of highly-educated and very successful NYC women on sites like match.com. I met the girl I'm seeing right now on match and we're having a lot of fun.